Removing old paperclips and straight pins, discarding the wormlike remains of ancient rubber bands, then straightening folded papers for insertion in acid-free folders can be as tedious as a too long sentence.

So when volunteers sorting and filing old probate cases at the Clark County Historical Society come across something unusual — say a hand-written note — they often entertain one another by reading it.

Thus did Amber Lopez come to read aloud the lightly pencilled, mostly legible note in the 1915 probate case of Evelyn and Catharine Anjean Welsheimer. As it turned out, only the lettering was light.

For from the start, the note’s tone seemed straight from the inky nib of Edgar Allan Poe.

“It seems that I am a misery to my wife and that she no longer is satisfied with me,” it began, “for